breathe new life into

breathe new life into (third-person singular simple present breathes new life into, present participle breathing new life into, simple past and past participle breathed new life into)

1. To reinvigorate; to fill with energy again.
   • 2014 March 3, M. F. Dail, Limbodeswills Wain, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN:

     In the ensuing clashes between nouveau-cons and their more or less double-crossed doppelgangers, taking the part of either is to administer the kiss of life to a dying tradition or breathing new life into cacoethics.

   • 2015, Philip R. Hardie, The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature:

     But, overall, Donne's poetry represents an epistemic break with the love clichés so overused by an earlier era; and the poet was often moved to use Platonic equatings of love, beauty, and goodness to breathe new life into old Petrarchisms.

   • 2025 April 17, Simon Stone, “Manchester United 5-4 Olympique Lyonnais”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Supporters were streaming for the exits in their droves but Bruno Fernandes breathed new life into United when he converted a penalty six minutes from time after a video assistant referee intervention for a foul on Casemiro that had initially gone unpunished.

   • 2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     While his two predecessors had been authoritarians – they knew what they thought on the most contentious matters within Catholicism and imposed that view on the church regardless of dissenters – Francis preferred to work away patiently at building consensus and accommodating a variety of perspectives. To that end, he breathed new life into the system of regular gatherings – or synods – of bishops in Rome to debate pressing matters.